Monday, September 21, 2009

When you were in primary school, did you have to write your "Morning News" every morning?

I remember this being one of the standard things we did in the Boys School in Graiguenamanagh every morning - both in the old building and in the hall while the school was being done up. However, I'm off digressing. It was a page in your copybook about what happened the evening before and anything else you had to share, designed to keep us quiet for the first half an hour, to exercise our writing skills and possibly (though I'd never say it) for the teachers to have something to talk about at breaktime.

I don't know if my parents have kept any of my old copies (I almost hope not) but I have fond memories of scribbling down exciting news like "We have a new dog" or "My aunty Mary is coming from Galway" or "I saw the turtles on the telly yesterday" or "I went to the library and they have new Asterix books!"

Not a lot happened of note, thankfully, though a memory comes unbidden to my mind of a classmate being worried about the teacher's reaction that he hadn't got his homework or copybooks with him even though his house had burned down the night before. But there I go digressing again.

I've been thinking about The Morning News a lot recently, not only as a way of communicating what's been happening but also a reminder of what has happened. Someone asked recently if I ever stay in of an evening, take an evening off, don't do something online or off and while I might protest and say "Of course!" it's probably not that in reality. Looking at that list of companies I've worked with in the past while is quite revealing, showing, as it does, the kind of stuff I've been doing and also how much of it.

So, I'm going to try get back into the routine of blogging with a Morning News post at the least. Partly to engage the creative braincells, party for routine and partly as a record for myself. You never know. It may be entertaining too. Basically, as I said, getting back to telling you "what I do", like.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

I did a favour for a company during the week. It wasn't a company I've ever had dealings with previously other than reading their weekly newsletter, but I completed a survey and at the end spotted an issue that I emailed them about. They replied almost immediately saying thanks and asking for my address to send me "something nice". I told them it was no bother, that I was glad to help and the long and short of it was the girl behind the email address sent me "a nice photo", as above.

So I thought I'd share that. It made me laugh but it also made me think that something I haven't done in quite a while is blog about things like that. I used to. I used to blog about what it is I do, and between doing all the things I do and and trying what I try, I just never have the time to sit down and update this blog.

So I'm going to try and do that at least once a day from now on. I'm also going to try keep it to the things I do or am involved in, rather than just what I like, funny stuff from the interwebs or letting people know about things. Because I'm doing that over on Culch.ie, over on Boards.ie, over on my Tumblr (which is really just a bookmarking facility for me) and keeping photos up to date on Pix.ie.

While the break from obsessive posting (here at least) has been good, it hasn't really kept people up to date with what I've been at or who with, so I wanted to let you know a bit of that too.

Work

I'm working full time (still) as a Community Manager with Boards.ie - one of the two. The last six month with the site have been challenging, and I'm glad to have taken the opportunity, not only to work in such a solid team as I do, but to help drive the site in some small way.

There are some big developments happening with Boards.ie to bring it kicking and screaming to the starting line of online discussion in Ireland. There's quite a ways to go yet, but some of the contacts I've made are proving most useful and receptive.

Play

Well, counting "play" as the stuff I'm not paid a salary to do, I guess I've been doing a lot of playing recently.

Some of the groups I've been involved with over the last while include Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Culture Night 2009, RTÉ Performing Groups, The National Concert Hall, The Darklight Festival, St Patricks' Festival, The ABSOLUT FRINGE Festival, the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, The Guinness 250 Celebrations, WHPR, Kate Bowe PR, COnway Communications, The Abbey Theatre, The International Puppet Festival, Good Seed PR, Edelman, The Carlsberg Comedy Carnival, Entertainment Architects, The Science Gallery, The Street Performance World Championships and Emergent Events; The Cinemagic Festival; The Dublin Playhouse project and more.

I've been busy and it's been fun.

Health:

My health's not bad at all. Still a lot of pain and some fatigue but I'm getting through it.

The other stuff:

Well, sure if I start talking about that now, I'd have nothing else to say in the weeks and months ahead, would I?

This is kind of important

Any of the things I write on this blog are my own opinions and should be treated as such. They are neither a reflection on or the opinion of the companies that I work with. I also do not write posts that have been paid for or requested by employers.